I have just the plan for reforming Britain's tweet police...only they might deem it offensive - Royston Smith
Harry Miller blasts Essex Police after dropping Allison Pearson case
GB News
The minute we start to prevent people from saying things we don’t like we are on a slippery slope to an authoritarian country dressed up as a democracy.
We saw this before with the likes of Nick Griffin and the BNP. We weren’t confident enough in our arguments to take him on in a debate, so we tried to shut him down.
Similarly, we attempted to marginalise UKIP, the Brexit Party and now the Reform Party too. We have lost the ability to understand that we don’t need to like what someone says, but we must defend their right to say it.
We should never forget that while we might want to silence someone today, tomorrow someone might choose to silence us. Democracy was supposed to protect us from state overreach but as with much else in the Western liberal democracies, it fails in that endeavour.
In fact, many who claim to be democrats are the same people who want to silence and cancel those they disagree with, not through the ballot box but through legislation and enforcement.
The Allison Pearson probe sounded the death knell on woke policing, and I know what should replace it, writes Royston Smith
GB News/Getty Images
You can scarcely have a conversation now without someone saying, “You can’t say that these days”. Everything we watch, read and listen to is either a clumsy attempt at social engineering or has been completely sanitised to prevent risk of criticism, or worse, a knock on the door from the local constabulary. Who instructs the police to behave in this way? Do they not have enough to keep them busy? Burglary, theft and violence, for example? Would their time be better spent getting their own house in order before sending around the tweet police to unsuspecting journalists who happen to have an opinion?
Who are they to judge what is offensive? The police officers who visited Telegraph journalist, Allison Pearson last week have offended me. Shall I report them to Essex Police? What would they do? We all know the answer, they would do nothing.
I am not the correct type of victim and Essex Police will judge themselves incapable of offending me. It’s madness. If your car is broken into or your house is burgled, don’t wait for a visit from the police, they won’t come, they don’t have the resources. Shoplifters, drug dealers, and scammers all get away with it but don’t dare voice an opinion out loud in public; they are not short of resources to prosecute that.
It's not enough for politicians to talk about freedom of speech and how it must be defended. It is they who are constantly adding to the list of what might be deemed offensive. Everything is offensive to someone, but we can’t be expected to live our lives without ever running the risk of upsetting people.
Years ago, I worked with a chap who was the most prolific liar I have ever met. His stories were more and more exaggerated every time he told them. Everyone knew he wasn’t telling the truth. That didn’t seem to bother him, or us for that matter. Those were the days before social media. If he had access to Twitter or Facebook, I could only imagine what would have happened to him. Where is all this going to stop?
If the police don’t have the resources to attend a robbery or an assault, they shouldn’t have the resources to harass people who may have used the wrong terminology or had the temerity to say what they think. You don’t change what someone believes by preventing them from speaking, you do it by argument and example. We are not children, and nor are those who find offence in everything they see or hear. Leave us alone to rub along together - we seemed to have managed to do so without needing help in the past, perhaps we can do so again.
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